How Monte Cristo is porting PC-original Silverfall to the PSP

It has already been settled long before that the RPG title Silverfall will be available on Sony‘s handheld PlayStation Portable. As you all know, this game was originally intended for the PC platform and it’s still interesting how developer Monte Cristo is going to do this.

Just so you know how hard it’s going to be, one developer from Monte Cristo commented that one single character texture of the PC version equals the total memory of the PSP. And mind you, this is not the biggest issue here. PC units have a mouse function and needless to say, the PSP doesn’t have that. The company explained,

We had to change the whole system to allow for direct control, that is to say you don’t click on a location to get your character there but move by yourself with the stick. You don’t click on a monster to fight, you actually input the moves you want to make.

Another important change Monte Cristo implemented was in the camera controls positions. According to the developers, the camera view is persistently behind the character with two different positions: the first one is a classical top down view while the second is a more third-person view.

Furthermore, hurdles were also met in changing Silverfall‘s HUD. Just the screen size difference between the two platforms is enough to make one think if the same amount of information will be conveyed to the PSP players. Monte Cristo said that it spent a lot of time thinking about the organisation of the interface, ergonomics and the amount of data that can be displayed.

In the PC version of Silverfall, players get to have companions or a party. Monte Cristo shared that the developers have to do away with it and compensate by adding more enemies on the screen instead. The title is hack-and-slash alright, but chained actions (much like in Magic: The Gathering) are also required.

Silverfall still has no concrete release date as of yet but we really do hope it’s soon. We believe that the developers really spent a lot of time on this title just to make it a perfect fit for us handheld users.

Via IGN

It has already been settled long before that the RPG title Silverfall will be available on Sony‘s handheld PlayStation Portable. As you all know, this game was originally intended for the PC platform and it’s still interesting how developer Monte Cristo is going to do this.

Just so you know how hard it’s going to be, one developer from Monte Cristo commented that one single character texture of the PC version equals the total memory of the PSP. And mind you, this is not the biggest issue here. PC units have a mouse function and needless to say, the PSP doesn’t have that. The company explained,

We had to change the whole system to allow for direct control, that is to say you don’t click on a location to get your character there but move by yourself with the stick. You don’t click on a monster to fight, you actually input the moves you want to make.

Another important change Monte Cristo implemented was in the camera controls positions. According to the developers, the camera view is persistently behind the character with two different positions: the first one is a classical top down view while the second is a more third-person view.

Furthermore, hurdles were also met in changing Silverfall‘s HUD. Just the screen size difference between the two platforms is enough to make one think if the same amount of information will be conveyed to the PSP players. Monte Cristo said that it spent a lot of time thinking about the organisation of the interface, ergonomics and the amount of data that can be displayed.

In the PC version of Silverfall, players get to have companions or a party. Monte Cristo shared that the developers have to do away with it and compensate by adding more enemies on the screen instead. The title is hack-and-slash alright, but chained actions (much like in Magic: The Gathering) are also required.

Silverfall still has no concrete release date as of yet but we really do hope it’s soon. We believe that the developers really spent a lot of time on this title just to make it a perfect fit for us handheld users.

Via IGN